Standing for "Dialogue Respect Understanding Through Music" the multi-million dollar project had received the support of George Clooney and Matt Damon, but plans for a concert in Istanbul to unite the two different worlds on stage, scheduled for summer 2007, had to be pushed back due to the Live Earth series of shows to be held in major cities across the world in July. A series of concerts will now take place this autumn and summer 2008.

It had been rumoured that Tarkan would be involved in the event, but he has been overlooked by organisers Zeynep Dereli, Allen Collinsworth, Itır Devellioğlu and Mehmet Fevzi Çelebi, who decided to approach Turkish female artist Sertab Erener to front the project.

Erener has recorded the signature song for the project "I Remember" and is currently busy filming a music video for the tune on location in Prague. MTV directors Michael Abbott and Christian Johnston are working on the video, and the single is expected to be released in the coming weeks.

Tarkan's Songs are Wiped Out

Meanwhile, along with calls to boycott all news about Tarkan after his mistreatment of reporters in Antalya and the escalating rumours in the celebrity gossip columns that the singer's latest Turkish album has lost direction - with the release date being postponed to August - Tarkan remains silent as he hides out in the studio.

One popular music blog has published news - using Turkish newspaper Vatan as it source - that in some quarters the rumour is the real reason for the album's delay is not that Tarkan has lost faith in the album, but that the vocal recordings for his favourite song were accidentally deleted when the studio in America suffered a technical glitch.